Bergen County Town Received 9/11 Steel Beam Wednesday

One of the last remaining steel beams from the World Trade Center will be transported to Cresskill today. The beam will be incorporated into a monument honoring the township’s two 9/11 victims.

Port Authority Police officers Sgt. John Coughlin and Officer John Cortazzo died as a result of the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Coughlin, 43, died during the attack. Cortazzo, 48, died due to an illness he got as a result of the working on site during the rescue efforts.

The beam is from the parking complex under the World Trade Center where a half-ton bomb was set off on Feb. 26, 1993. The 4-foot-by-4-foot beam is painted orange and blue and was located in the B2 area of the complex.

“We’ve always hoped we would get a piece,” said Mayor Benedict Romeo. “We knew it would be a long wait, and now we’ve finally gotten it and we are very pleased.”

Cresskill authorities are picking the beam up at JFK International Airport’s storage facility this morning.

The steel will be the centerpiece of a monument in Cook Park. The monument will be a combination of stone and steel that The American Legion Post 21, middle and high school students, and town officials, are designing. Officials hope to complete the monument by September 2016.

Bergen County Surrogate Michael R. Dressler worked with Romeo to acquire the beam from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“In doing this, we set out to build a monument in honor of all the victims of 9/11, but in particular, in memory of our two sons,” Dressler said.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)